Progress update: Audi battery pack

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Aaron Choate

Chris and I needed a bit of fun after a productive evening working on the modifications to the electric Porsche Boxster battery management system. I’ll post more about the BMS work later, but I wanted to jump on and do a quick post about our initial results on the TS100ahr testing we did. It had been a long night, but we’ve been bugged by the reports of others’ experience with performance from the cells that were purchased in the same batch as the ones we have for the Audi. So, we grabbed a battery fresh off the stack and hacked together a temporary load test rig to see how the cells we have in hand fair. After some fun with sparks and at least one piece of welded steel (sorry no pics – [frown]) we have at least a general feel that these cells we have are capable of 5-6C. We’re going to do a more formal test to make sure we’ve gotten it right, but now we have a starting point. We’re going to ask if we can do a formal test on the cells. That way we’ll have some real data to make a decision from.

Posted in 2010 Audi A3 | Comments Off

EPA Issues Final Rule for Clean Alternative Fuel Vehicle and Engine Conversions

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Aaron Choate

The EPA has issued an update to their alternative fuel certification requirements. I have often wondered how these affect us as electric vehicle converters and system designers and more importantly in the plug-in hybrid side of things. If you would like to dig through the whole thing, you can find it here:

and the guidance letter that was released on October 28, 2010:

Updated Certification Guidance for Alternative Fuel Converters (PDF)

After digging through it, I found these statements at the end of the guidance letter:

Electricity
22.1 What are EPA’s policies with respect to converting hybrid electric vehicles to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles?

Ans. EPA’s conversion policy applies to hybrid electric-to-plug-in conversions. Certification is required to ensure that the converted plug-in hybrid will meet applicable emission standards and will remain clean and durable for its full useful life. This is necessary because any change to an OEM-certified configuration could affect the emission control system and could be considered a tampering violation. In the case of an aftermarket plug-in hybrid conversion, for example, it is possible that the altered interaction between the internal combustion engine and the battery electric system could cause more “cold starts” of the internal combustion engine, thereby increasing emissions relative to the OEM vehicle.

22.2 What are EPA’s policies with respect to converting vehicles to full battery electric?

Ans. Vehicle conversions to full battery electric (no on-board source of combustion emissions) do not require alternative fuel vehicle certification as protection from a possible tampering violation.

So, pretty clearly, It seems that an all electric battery conversion of any car looks to be clear of concern at this point. However, if you are installing PHEV kits for say… a Prius… you will need to point to the certification for that kit. Now, I’m off to ask Enginer where they stand on said certification…

Posted in in the news | Comments Off

Soliton Jr. added to the REVOLT Electric Vehicle Components store

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Aaron Choate

Soliton Jr We’re glad to announce that the makers of the Soliton 1 controller have released a less expensive controller for projects that may not require so many amps to get moving. We’ve added the Soliton Jr. to the store. The Soliton Jr. is a 300 volt, 600 amp Peak DC Motor Controller for electric vehicles.

Posted in REVOLT EVC | Comments Off